NATIONAL PETROCHEMICAL & REFINERS ASSOCIATION

1899 L STREET, NW, SUITE 1000

WASHINGTON, DC 20036

MC-02-89

WORK MANAGEMENT PROCESS’ CONTRIBUTION TO PACESETTER

STANDARDS AND THE BOTTOMLINE

By

Matt Noble
Associate Principal

Reliability Management Group

Burnsville, MN

And

Jerry Lockie
Manager of Operations

Sunoco Refining
Toledo, OH

Presented at the

NPRA
2002 Annual Refinery & Petrochemical Plant
Maintenance Conference and Exhibition
May 7-10, 2002
San Antonio Convention Center
San Antonio, TX
This paper has been reproduced for the author or authors as a courtesy by the National Petrochemical &
Refiners Association. Publication of this paper does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the
opinions of the NPRA, its officers, directors, members, or staff. NPRA claims no copyright in this work.
Requests for authorization to quote or use the contents should be addressed directly to the author(s)
Abstract
Change is difficult because even though an old way of doing business might not make sense any
more, it is still what people are used to and they will resist doing things differently. For change
to be intelligent and sustainable, people must be involved in developing their new way of doing
business. There are guidelines for this involvement, ways of proceeding that make success much
more likely. A good example is who to involve; we have learned it must be a representative
group so that all perspectives are considered. If you are considering any significant change in
your organization, but especially if it involves work management, these guidelines will help you
achieve that much desired but little realized goal of Pace Setter Standards, Bottom Line
Improvements and Ownership.

Introduction
Typically an organization embarks on the journey to Pace Setter Standards and improved Bottom
Line performance without a roadmap. Catch phrases like “Failure is not an option” and “Accept
nothing less than world class” are offered as strategy. Everyone knows the meaning of “flavor of
the month”; they’ve lived through many programs with the best of intentions and the biggest of
buildups. They’ve seen the rollouts and the posters and the award ceremonies. They’ve seen
memos and mission statements and town meetings. What they haven’t experienced is personal
participation in the design of a new process, or broad-based ownership of an implementation
program. They’ve developed a healthy skepticism about the latest program, an unwillingness to
jump on board a train they know is headed for a cliff. Yet you need these people or you are a
drum major without a band. The way to overcome their skepticism is not by talking, but by
doing. You have to demonstrate a difference, not just proclaim one.

Preparing for Change

You begin by taking the time to prepare for change. This preparation step is too often ignored in
favor of immediate implementation activities. Organizations that live by fire fighting tend to go
about changing their work management process the same way they tackle emergency jobs. But
changing work management requires changing behavior and that is a long-term project. Old
habits must be broken and new habits must take their place. Since new habits take time to
develop, you have to really want them or it is easy to fall back into the old way of doing
business. Without preparation, new programs lose momentum and roll to a stop or, even worse,
continue on with only a few pathetic pieces of the program in place.

Change is a big job! It requires the same approach as a major capital project, which has an
equipment design, a resource plan, a project schedule and lots of communication. Your
preparation must provide exactly these – design, plan, schedule and communication – for the
work management implementation project:
• Design a new, preferred work management process complete with specific tasks and
responsibilities
• Plan the installation of the new process including what resources will be used and how
• Prioritize the jobs and develop a schedule for implementing the new process
• Communicate extensively so that people with relevant knowledge contribute to the plan and
everyone involved knows the plan and their role in it

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Think of the preparation step as building a foundation for change. The process of change
requires a foundation to be successful. A foundation is the bottom-most part or origin of a
structure; it is the groundwork. A structure can only be as strong as its foundation and a
foundation must be completed before the more visible, functional and higher levels of a structure
can be erected. Change is such an important business process that it is worth doing right.
Without intelligent, guided change a business merely drifts in the currents of industry and
competitor changes.

Change means developing new habits, new ways of doing business. Significant change won’t
happen of its own accord, it has to be caused - either internally or externally. Neither will
significant change last long if it isn’t constantly reinforced. For planned change to be both
caused and reinforced by a company’s employees, they have to agree with it and want it enough
to battle the forces of resistance. The foundation of a change process then, is employee belief in
the necessity, direction and ability to change. That belief can only grow in a climate of mutual
trust and respect.

Build a New, Preferred Work Management Process Using a Foundation Team

To build a foundation for change, use a medium-size team (12-15 people) made up of managers
and peer group leaders from every department, area and organizational level. Have them meet
intensely – several hours a day, several days a week, for several weeks. The Foundation Team’s
primary job is to develop a new, preferred work management process. The hours of team
deliberation should be spent discussing what does and does not work now, and what would work
given your unique circumstances.

Strong Structure – Norms and the Right Questions

These discussions must take place within a strong structure. The goal is to have the right people
talking about the right issues in the right way. A strong structure is one that makes sure
discussions stay focused on work management and that all perspectives are duly considered. The
central elements of a strong structure are group norms and asking the right questions. Norms are
things like Courtesy (e.g., not interrupting), Candor (tactfully telling the truth) and Flexibility
(willingness to consider other perspectives). Norms must be followed rigorously so that people
learn how to talk with one another about difficult issues. The right questions to ask are those that
focus on the work management process so that people don’t get tangled up in personal or
personnel problems. For example, what is a better way of identifying, planning, scheduling,
accomplishing, documenting and measuring our work?

Ownership Through the 3 C’s

Within your strong structure, strive to achieve the three conditions (3C’s) of successful
organizational change – Clarity, Consensus and Commitment:

Clarity - Universal understanding of concept definitions and consequences. They may be

company concepts or industry concepts. They may be personal, professional or
societal concepts. What matters is that when you use a word or phrase, everyone
who hears it thinks it means the same thing as the person who said it. When you
do the hard work of achieving clarity the next step, consensus, is relatively easy.
People are much further apart in perception than they are in reality.

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Consensus - General agreement on the clarity items. When we agree with something we
are buying in to its logic and importance, we are halfway toward ownership.
The next step, commitment, tests your ownership by asking if you are ready
to demonstrate it and not just talk about it.

Commitment - Reality; real dollars, real hours, high-quality people, real behavior change
Priority; forsaking other important tasks to make change happen
Perseverance; staying with the program, accepting and preparing for
resistance as a key component of the change process

Clarity, consensus and commitment form a foundation of ownership. Ownership is absolutely

necessary if the change process is to be effective, accelerated and lasting.

Fair Process
Another important contributor to your ability to deliver both a technically superior process and
organizational ownership, is that it is a “fair process.” The essence of fair process is inclusion or
involvement – the opportunity to participate in decisions that affect you and about which you
have substantial knowledge and experience.

Assure fairness in the composition of the Foundation Team. The team should consist of
representatives from all departments and all levels of the organization. The goal is to have a full
range of perspectives from among those who participate most in the work management process.
Assure fairness also in the Foundation Building process itself, that is, how the team goes about
its business. Everyone should have an equal opportunity to persuade the team. The power of a
person’s opinion should be based on practicality and persuasiveness, not position!

Use Known Best Maintenance and Management Practices

Develop your new process within a framework of known best maintenance and management
practices, so it is technically sound. For example, a standard best practice in work planning is
that most jobs are scoped in the field and a standard job package includes a time estimate, jobs
steps, safety cautions, equipment drawings and a list of parts that may be needed. Such standard
practices should be a given, they should be insisted upon going in. The Foundation Team’s job is
to find the best way to accomplish these best practices at their facility.

Reach Decisions by Consensus

Foundation Team decisions should be reached by consensus. If you work hard on achieving
clarity during your discussions, the differences between people tend to disappear – at least
differences about how the work management process should work – and so team consensus is
near to unanimity. But the distinction between consensus and unanimity is an important business
lesson for the organization. You can’t allow one person to hold up the whole show, at some
point dissenters must accept the will of the group so the team can move on. The Foundation
Team must learn through experience how to form a consensus and make a decision the whole
team will support.

Keep the Process 100% Open – Encourage Observers

Every meeting of a Foundation Team should be open to observers. In fact, observers should be
encouraged, even solicited, so that operators, crafts, supervisors, engineers, managers and

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executives can see for themselves what is going on. Observers will routinely enter a session
believing it will be gripes and brainwashing. Instead, they will find a hardworking group of
people who are discussing, frankly, real day-to-day problems and then, most impressive of all,
deciding for themselves what is best for the organization.

Communication Needs to be Constant and Complete

Foundation Team members should go out to the plant every week to describe their deliberations
and answer questions. Each team discussion and decision has to be documented and made
available on e-mail. There should be a final report and presentation to the whole plant. Even if
people don’t want to know what is happening in Foundation Building, they should know
anyway. Communication must be relentless!

Measurable Impacts
There are many metrics that will allow you to determine the impact you have had through
implementing an improved Work Management Process. It is important to identify and begin
using them as soon as possible. These metrics need to reflect your desired outcomes. Metrics
generally fall into one of two categories; Leading and Lagging indicators. Leading indicators are
those that help monitor the health of your Work Management Process and Lagging are those that
report performance after the fact. The key leading indicator is Daily Schedule Compliance. Daily
Schedule Compliance provides insight as to how well you are getting the right work done, with
the right resources at the right time. This metric will serve as an early indication, directionally, as
to whether you are improving or not. The key lagging indicator is financial performance. It is
reasonable to expect that implementing an improved Work Management Process will yield
significantly improved results in:
• Direct Expenses
• Throughput/Uptime
• Labor to Management Ratio
• First Pass Quality
• Equipment Reliability and Availability
• Variable Cost Management

Summary
Prepare for your long-term work management project by building a foundation for change. Use
a team made up of representatives of all departments to build a new, preferred process. Build
your new process within a framework of known best practices. Along with your new process,
have the team develop an implementation plan and schedule. Constantly and completely
communicate everything the Foundation Team does. Use a fair process and search diligently for
clarity consensus and commitment. If you take the time to prepare for change this way, you will
develop a work management process that will really work because it is based on known best
practices but adapted to local conditions. It will work because people understand it and own it
and want it – they will make it work!

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